An attorney for a Rancho Cucamonga developer accused of conspiring with San Bernardino County officials to gain a $102 million settlement says prosecutors have failed to provide him with documents and other evidence that will exonerate his client.

The San Bernardino police chief and assistant city attorney wrote dueling memos this month, both purporting “to set the record straight” by blaming each other for the City Council receiving a figure for ending the city’s red light camera contract that could be short by almost $1.8 million.

Wilmer Amina Carter, D-Rialto, is vacating her Assembly seat. Joe Baca Jr., a Rialto councilman and former assemblyman, and Cheryl Brown, president of the local NAACP chapter and are vying for the redrawn and renumbered 47th Assembly District, comprised of Fontana, Rialto, Colton and a western portion of San Bernardino. (File photos)

Neil Nisperos, Staff Writer Created: 08/29/2011 01:53:44 PM PDT

The seat held by Assemblywoman Wilmer Amina Carter, D-Rialto, is being eyed by two well-known figures in San Bernardino County political circles.

ONTARIO – A San Bernardino County Superior Court judge is expected to decide, possibly as early as today, if the city and Wal-Mart are responsible for paying the attorney fees for residents who opposed the project in the northwest side of town.

A bill for a public pension reform advocated by Gov. Brown, and a commission appointed by former Gov. Schwarzenegger, has a labor sponsor, no formal opposition and therefore smooth sailing in the Legislature, right?

Redistricting has placed Republican Rep. David Dreier’s home in a new Latino-majority district where Republican John McCain won just 33% in the 2008 presidential election. (Francine Orr, Los Angeles Times)

By Richard Simon, Los Angeles Times August 28, 2011, 9:41 p.m.

Reporting from Washington— David Dreier, who chairs the House Rules Committee, has a seat at the GOP leadership table, helping set his party’s legislative and political agenda. He has hobnobbed with all kinds of figures, from Afghan President Hamid Karzai to Tommy Lasorda, in his spiffy Capitol office.

The dismissal of five of seven criminal charges against Rancho Cucamonga developer Jeff Burum in a far-reaching county corruption scandal is the latest twist in a case that has seen sweeping changes in the past two years.

Under pressure from Inland Rep. Darrell Issa, The New York Times this morning issued another correction to the unflattering front-page story the newspaper published last week about the wealthy lawmaker’s business dealings.

A 2009 lawsuit claiming retaliation and discrimination by then-Riverside County District Attorney Rod Pacheco has been tossed by a commissioner who agreed the plaintiff, a former chief deputy district attorney, had no standing to sue.

A land developer accused of supplying hundreds of thousands of dollars for bribery and hidden campaign contributions during a political corruption scandal in San Jacinto pleaded guilty Friday for his role in the scheme.

A bill allowing undocumented students in California to use public funds to help pay for college is quickly moving through Sacramento, but cost may be an issue if and when it crosses Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk next month.

Reporting from Sacramento — Democrats in the Legislature are trying to make it harder for Californians to pass their own laws at the ballot box, saying the state’s century-old initiative process has been hijacked by the special interests it was created to fight and has perpetuated Sacramento’s financial woes.

California official says developer AEG probably overstated the financial boost. He speaks at a hearing on the fiscal effect and a possible bill to let AEG curtail legal challenges on environmental issues.

By David Zahniser, Los Angeles Times August 27, 2011

The office that advises the California Legislature voiced doubts Friday about the level of economic benefit that would come from an NFL stadium in downtown Los Angeles, saying studies commissioned by the project’s developer “likely overstated” the financial boost it would deliver.

It is important that we, the voters, understand that city attorneys in California are expected to abide by ethical principles adopted by the City Attorneys Department of the League of California Cities.

Capitol Alert The latest on California politics and government August 25, 2011

By David Siders and Torey Van Oot dsiders@sacbee.com

The tax and jobs plan Gov. Jerry Brown proposed this morning was immediately assailed by Republicans as “creative packaging,” and even Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg — who stood beside Brown at the podium for the announcement — said he doesn’t expect it to pass.

It was just coincidence that Gov. Jerry Brown unveiled a billion-dollar tax proposal – which he said would improve California’s struggling economy – on the same day that the Legislature’s budget analyst released a long report on the state’s infrastructure crisis.

A coalition of giant, brick-and-mortar retailers and their legislative allies have come up with a new strategy to try to head off Amazon.com’s referendum to overturn the state’s new Internet sales tax law.

The Franchise Tax Board announced Thursday that state income tax brackets, credits and deductions for 2011 have been adjusted, as state law requires, for a 2.7 percent inflationary factor, three times as large as last year’s adjustment.

In a major victory for immigrant advocates, a key state Senate committee cleared the most significant obstacle to a bill that would give college students who are illegal immigrants access to public aid for the first time.

Three measures filed by the newly-formed Committee to Reform San Bernardino County Government, in an effort to reform San Bernardino County government, are apparently being viewed as partially flawed by county lawyers.

A state-imposed fire fee for residents living in areas served by Cal Fire continues to make waves in San Bernardino County, despite recent efforts to change the fee structure and rewrite the legislation.

Gov. Jerry Brown has a new tax proposal to sell the Legislature: raise levies on some large out-of-state corporations in exchange for new sales-tax exemptions for companies who make products and hire people in California.

Sacramento –As California’s unemployment rate climbs – the state is stubbornly stuck with the second-worst jobless problem in the nation – leaders at the Capitol are focusing on jobs in the final three weeks of the legislative session.

By Walter Hamilton, Dawn Chmielewski and David Sarno Los Angeles Times August 25, 2011

Steve Jobs, the visionary co-founder of Apple Inc. and driving force behind a string of products that revolutionized the consumer-electronics industry, stepped down as chief executive but was named chairman of the board, the company said late Wednesday.

The ink was hardly dry on the certification of the new congressional districts when GOP Reps. Ed Royce and Gary Miller assumed campaign postures, with Royce apparently first out of the gate as the two incumbents race to win the new, tri-county 39th Congressional District.

A ballot measure that would hike the retirement age of public employees to 65 (except for public safety officers, who could retire at 58) could save billions of dollars every year in the long run, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office.

SAN BERNARDINO • Future candidates vying for office in San Bernardino County may have to abide by new campaign contribution limits, if reform proposed by county supervisors Tuesday develops into policy.

A policy prohibiting the naming of San Bernardino County buildings after elected officials until they’ve been retired from the political arena for at least three years was approved unanimously Tuesday by the Board of Supervisors.

When Gov. Jerry Brown and the Legislature took another bite out of the state court system to balance the state budget – on paper, anyway – they reignited a political war between rival factions of judges over financial priorities.

If you have friends in devastated Christchurch, NZ (as we do), or relatives who survived the killer quake in Santiago, Chile (as we do) or if you lived through the deadly Loma Prieta earthquake in the Bay Area (as we did), Monday’s narcissistic hysteria among the Eastern Establishment Media about the little 5.8 tremor that rolled through Washington was more than a little offensive.

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (Reuters) – Bank of America Corp’s (NYSE:BAC – News) shares fell as much as 6.4 percent to their lowest level since March 2009 as investors worried about possible write-offs and capital raises.

SACRAMENTO – The Senate will not consider any online gambling legislation until 2012, the upper house’s top Democrat said Monday, in a setback to two Inland Southern California tribes that have spent the year pushing one of the proposals.

SAN BERNARDINO — Airport officials have submitted their formal response to a blistering Grand Jury report that second-guessed some of their decisions in the effort to turn the former Norton Air Force Base into a civilian airfield.

Both the regular Inland Valley Development Agency and San Bernardino International Airport Authority meetings scheduled for Aug. 24 have been cancelled. The two agencies oversee redevelopment of the former Norton Air Force Base in San Bernardino.

By Alejandro Lazo and Nathaniel Popper, Los Angeles Times August 23, 2011

Reporting from Los Angeles and New York— An effort by state attorneys general to take big mortgage servicers to task over faulty foreclosure practices has stalled as financial institutions demand broad legal immunity from other mortgage-related probes.